MnHillBilly

What got some of you motivated and kept you on your bike on those mornings when common sense was telling you it was maybe a better idea to stay warm and take the car or bus in?

I ask, because my region is still in a cold cycle (waking up to teens and 20's) and I'm thinking this is the time to test my mettle and see if I can try to commute 9 months of the year instead of putting the bike in dry doc at the end of October.

I get the bike prepped the night before, set the alarm to get up with plenty of time to put on the gloves and baklava, but winds of 15-20 mph have kept me from (or helped me rationalize why I shouldn't be) getting in the saddle and biking to the usual bus station.

What helped you get over the initial mental hurdle, besides gear? The incentive of warm coffee waiting in your bottle cage or at your destination? Taking advantage of being one of the few cyclists out there yet to share the path?

Just curious.

tjwarren

Have you been out in the cold yet? I don't think there was a morning where I was turned off by the cold outside. There were a few morning where I decided to stay in my warm bed and sleep longer and then drive in, but that was more about the cold that existed everywhere except under my blankets.

You'll be cold for a few minutes when you first start out, but you'll warm up pretty quickly.

Having a beard, I always liked showing up to work with icicles hanging off of my face!


Just get out and try it one morning -- you'll find it's not as bad as you think.

KLW2

+1!!!!

ghettocruiser

Not sitting in traffic (for longer than entire ride takes) helps.

I'm also pretty sure I'd freeze to death before the bus came, were I to try that.

They'd find my remains in the spring.

tjwarren

Well, my ride is 3 - 5 times longer than my drive, depending on how fast I move. There's no way I can even pretend my ride is shorter. I enjoy the ride way more than the drive, though, cold or not!

PaulRivers

There are things that will keep me from bike commuting in when it's cold out, but they're not the temperature. Actually, it's pretty much just the time I could be sleeping - it's so time consuming to change all my clothes, do the ride in, then change again. Less clothing changes in the summer. And not cold specific, but being able to drive out to lunch or drive somewhere after work (like my local bike shop closes at 7pm in the winter and isn't terribly bike accessible, ironically, so if I bike home then drive back it's to late).

But the cold is actually a motivator to bike rather than driving or (god forbid) taking the bus. Let me break this down:

Biking - wearing my smartwool long underwear, I leave my place on my bike wearing winter gear with my entire body covered. I start off a slightly chilly then warm up in the 1st 5 minutes. At no point am I ever "freezing", including between my door and the bike path, and between when I lock up my bike and when I walk inside. The only exception is that my hands can get a little cold locking my bike up.

Driving - I walk out to my car without any preparation other than putting on a jacket, so it's much quicker than biking. I then freeze my ass off walking to my car. If there's a wind and it's really cold, my hands get that "sharp icicles" feeling walking to my car. I could wear gloves, but then I can't get my keys in and out without putting my gloves on and off so I don't do it. I then freeze inside my car for the first 5 minutes until the engine heats up and the heater starts working. Once I get to work, I get out of my car and freeze my ass off walking between my car and the building.

Taking the bus - well, I don't actually ever take the bus as I have a car and I don't work downtown. I can only imagine how cold it must be sitting there on the corner freezing my ass off waiting 15 minutes for the bus to show up.

As long as my body is fully covered by my windproof clothing, I've always been motivated to bike because it's warmer than driving!

(Technically I suppose if I dressed up for the drive like I dress up for the bike ride I wouldn't have to be as cold - but for some reason I never do...)

Jim from Boston

Commuting gets me out, fitness keeps me going, listening to the radio alleviates the boredom, and answering that perennial question, "You didn't RIDE today,did you?" makes it fun.

scoatw

I don't have a choice. I don't have a car. I ride every morning, rain, sun, snow. It's like others say. The cold isn't that bad with the right gear. My lowest this year was -12f.

Machka 

At the peak of my winter cycling ... I didn't own a car. Cycling in the winter took me 30 minutes. Taking the bus took 45 minutes.

Except for a few particularly snowy days, I cycled.

Pig_Chaser

For me cycling was arguably warmer than sitting in my '87 chevy which would just start to warm up by the time i arrived at work.

andrelam

This is the same problem I faced. I had to take the car a few times this Winter either because there had been too much snowfall during the night and it was just plain dangerous to ride, extreme wind, or I had an appoint to get to during the day that was too far away to ride. In any of those cases I found that I was COLDER in the car. I have a '03 Volvo with seat heaters, but my ride is only 5 miles so it takes me about 10 minutes to get to work. I refuse to let the car idle for any length of time as it is bad for the car and bad for the environment, and it wastes gas and that wastes a lot of $$$. After a few minutes the seat heaters would start to defrost me, and by the time I got half way to work the engine would start blowing warm air, either way I would finally be getting nice and warm by the time I got to work. With cycling I am cool when I get on the bike, but I get warmed up in no time. Therefore cycling was LESS painful than riding in the car on very cold days. On mild days the car takes no time to warm up so these issues don't present themselves, but on mild days the cycling is much more pleasant as well.

Happy riding... Spring is bound to come sooner or later. March was cold but pretty day with a few very nice warm days. The last three days have been well below freezing with non stop snow. Thank goodness the snow was VERY thin and very little was sticking around. This was hopefully our last "pre-Easter" snow fall. I've been waiting for it to come... There is ALWAYS snow here right around Easter, but it never lasts. Next week is looking much nicer with 40's to 50's in the afternoons

Happy riding,
André

Closed Office

Simple sig site link hooks up to a winter biking article that gets a bit into the
entertainment and even enjoyment. Have fun.

MnHillBilly

Thanks for the replies!

I should add that "cold" in my part of the world can be life-taking. It's only just now warming into the high 20's for the morning. A windbreaker still isn't cutting it for most of the bikers around town. Which is part of the hesitation.

And my commute consists of basically getting to a park 'n ride bus station, with options of biking different parts of the bus route eventually. I haven't driven my car the full way in winter in ages - just too much time spent digging out of frost and ice every day.

But, when it heats up into the 50's by afternoon, there are no more excuses. So this morning I'm just going to layer and see how it goes.

Thanks!

Jim from Boston

I ride 14 miles in in single digits, and occasionally below zero, but I'm getting discouraged by early AM temps of 35 in April; seems colder in April than in February.

Where do you live, and how far is your ride?

tsl

Talking with one of our patrons at work last night, (he's also car-free) we agreed that 30s in April feels lots colder than single-digits in January.

Yellowbeard

I find getting on the bike and moving is much easier than getting out of bed, whatever your mode of transportation.

PaulRivers

Judging from your username (MnHillBilly), I'm guessing you live in Minnesota? There's a bunch of us here who also bike commute through the Minnesota winter. If you don't have the right gear, I certainly understand your well-founded hesitation.

I'm not sure where you live, but in Minneapolis I out biking around at 35 degrees last night and I was seriously overheating. I had on a windproof jacket and a medium-weight smartwool long underwear top (amd that was it). I had the pit zips open, the cuffs unvelcroed and open (to get airflow up the arms) and the jacket half unzipped (which also causes airflow out the back vent) and I was finally not to hot any more. Now I had gloves on my hands, but my upper body was roasting before I opened the jacket up. Being all opened up, the jacket wasn't doing much wind blocking any more, but I was finally at a comfortable temperature. Above freezing it seems like if you dress up enough you'll be fine.

Below freezing is, I've found, more a matter of expense and knowing what the decent gear to buy is. So,

1. The most important thing below freezing, the colder it gets the more important it gets, is to cover exposed skin with a windproof material. This also makes a *huge* difference in keeping you warm. In the 20's you can get away with a windbreaker and more insulation underneath it. But I've been really impressed with the windproofness of "Windstopper" stuff - "Gore" as well as other manufacturers make jackets, gloves, etc with it. And I've also been impressed with the windproofness of eVent material - I have some Shower's Pass eVent rain jacket and pants stuff, and while the jury is still out on the jacket (got it right after it stopped being cold out) I was really impressed with the pants below freezing. They just stopped the wind getting through - period. 'course before you run out and buy them I should mention I have the knee flap they normally come with sealed shut.

But wearing something that was truly windproof made a *huge* difference in my comfort level. I need less clothes underneath, and with my older wind resistant stuff I would eventually feel cold as my ride went on, but that wasn't a problem any more.

2. The next most important thing is to wear clothing that will keep you warm when it's wet, as you're going to sweat. I wear smartwool long underwear - it's worked well. A lot of people say it's important to wear something that wicks moisture away from your skin, like wool or capaline or polyprolene. Supposedly cotton is bad - to be honest, I just haven't tried it myself as I started wearing wool because it's what everyone recommended.


If you're just riding at 25-50 degrees, I'd say you'd probably be fine with your normal biking clothing underneath windproof stuff. Gore and Craft both make a bunch of clothing that includes Windstopper material. There's probably some cheaper stuff that I'm not familiar with that's works as well but isn't brand name, I just haven't used it. Here's a jacket with a Windstopper front, for example:
https://www.craft-usa.com/cra_shop_zo...id=686&bcsex=m

tjwarren

My coldest ride this past winter was -22F, so it can be done.

I don't really have any wind-proof layers for my body, but I do use several layers of fleece. My chest and belly get cold to the touch, but I tend to run a pretty hot core temperature so that doesn't bother me.

My hands are where I face the most problem with the cold. I made arm warmers out of a pair of socks (I ripped out the toe seam), and these work great -- they keep my forearms nice and warm, and I can pull them down over or under my gloves so there is no exposed skin at the wrist. I also made a pair of wind-proof mitten shells to wear over my mittens. They are the only wind-proof layer I wore this past winter.

My ride was only 7.5 miles each way, so it wasn't usually long enough for my feet to get cold.

The first few minutes of icy-cold air can make your lungs burn, but I kinda enjoy it. My chest hurt for a few days the first two or three times I did it. Like I said, I kinda like it -- it feels like you're scrubbing your lungs with the icy cold air, it feels very cleansing.

Yellowbeard

I do this too, just to cover the gap between my sleeves and gloves. All I used this past winter was the sock things, long johns, saftey glasses and a balaclava with my normal gloves, coat and jeans. All cotton, but I never spent much more than 30 minutes on the bike at a time. Coldest temperatures were typically -25 C (sorry, I don't do fahrenheit) with at least one day that was -36 C or lower with the wind chill. That day my chain and derailleur froze for the first time.

The onyl part of me that was really cold was my feet, because I was still wearing my summer SPD shoes. My hands were cold, too, but that's the same on the bike or off it and I'm used to it.

PaulRivers

Regarding the last 2 posts, that's kind of what I'm saying. Sounds like you guys would prefer to deal with a little cold rather than spending a bunch of money on cycling gear. That's cool, like I said this crap is expensive.

But for the "squeamish", as in like the guy who originally posted, I've found that with windproof gear it's possible to be 100% warm while outside and biking in temperatures down to 5 degrees Fahrenheit (possibly lower, I just haven't test lower than 5 degrees myself yet). It's certainly possible to bike "safely" with "lesser", less expensive gear. Personally though, I've found 2 things:
1. I'm *amazed* at what a difference truly windproof gear makes.
2. I've found that on longer rides, the cold creeps in by the end of the ride without a windproof layer. To be fair, I haven't tested windproof gear in the truly long rides yet, it's just been so great on the less extreme rides (1 hour, 20 degrees Fahrenheit).

If you're biking at 35 degrees, you could probably get by with just like a wool longer underwear top and some pants.

While I think my gear has been pretty great, here's breakdown of how much I've spent in order to be able to bike in the cold, in the wet, and for long periods of time:

$180 Showers Pass breathable rain pants
$230 Showers Pass breathable rain jacket
$ 20 Showers Pass rain jacket hood
$ 70 Smartwool Long underwear shirt
$ 70 Smartwool Long underwear pants
$100 Ibex Wool Sweater
$ 40 Windproof Balaclava (head thing)
$ 70 Goretex Gloves
$ 50 Pearl Izumi Shoe Covers

For a grand total of $830. You don't *need* to spend that much, I was getting by with the smartwool stuff, my normal wind resistant cycling jacket, shoes covers, balaclava, and nylon shell pants. The question for me was - would I rather spend the money, or deal with some chill? Also, I wouldn't be able to bike at 40 degrees and raining without some rain gear. I chose to spend the cash, and I'm very comfortable, plus I saved a few grams on my bike with a lighter wallet (haha).

Jim from Boston

Thanks for the tip. I've got a pretty good cold weather system in place, but one pain was making sure my gloves and jacket made a tight seal at the wrist. Sounds liike those home made arm warmers could solve that problem.

striegel 

You can save a lot of money by shopping for clearance items. Just 2 weeks ago, I found a Columbia fleece jacket for $19.50, a cashmere sweater for $28 and a merino wool sweater for $6 at Kohl's.

My base layer shirts are almost all Nike that I've gotten at Marshall's for less than $10 apiece.

Closed Office

The bus company is not going to get a buck off of me!

MnHillBilly

Minnesota. My commute can vary to be as long or as short as I wish. 2 miles to the bus stop at the shortest. 20 if I take the whole way in. And different bus stop options in between that can make the biking 7 or 16 miles, etc.

In the dead of winter, we get double-digits below zero and wind chill dangerous enough that it cancels school and such just on its own. This has been an especially cold March/April for us so far - we're usually in low 50's for highs a few weeks earlier than this.

It's the wind that's the real concern for me. If it were just 20's and the only wind was what I created when coasting downhill, I don't think I'd have as much problem getting out the door But when we get 20 mph prairie gusts, it can lower the "feel" of the actual temp by 10-20 degrees, making it a challenge to figure out how to dress.

MnHillBilly

Well - I did myself proud. Shopped for some safety yellow sweats since I have to leave before sunrise and got out on my bike yesterday morning with the actual temp just 30 degrees. And my 2.33 miles to the bus didn't kill me . Mind you, I was cold. But I had the incentive of boarding a heated bus after 20 minutes or so to mitigate things. Was warm enough by afternoon that I'm glad I didn't go too overboard with the warm gear trying to get up the 6% grade that waits just before home.

I guess my next challenge will be later in the year, seeing how far into fall I can take things. Maybe gear up my Raleigh to ride on some slushy days?